SND Atavism

SND returns as glitch-techno’s old faithful and delivers an album that’s equally fascinating and frustrating. Avantism portrays SND at their most uncompromising, as they take little more than a thudding beat and a silken, R&B synth riff and contort them into shapes sublime and obscene for nearly an entire album. The group often keeps their knack for digging out bare traces of funk from otherwise airless, mechanical rhythms, best heard on Track 10. Still, they get awfully trapped within their rigid limits and end up punching walls until their knuckles bleed—too many rhythms are beaten into sputtering wrecks without care for the audience’s attention. There are a thousand cracks in SND’s glass prison but there’s still no escape.